Trump Unveils Plans for 'Golden Dome'

President Trump announced Tuesday the concept he wants for his future Golden Dome missile defense program—a multilayered $175 billion system that for the first time will put US weapons in space. Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said he expects the system will be "fully operational before the end of my term," which ends in 2029, and have the capability of intercepting missiles "even if they are launched from space." It's likelier that the complex system may have some initial capability by that point, a US official familiar with the program told the AP.

• Trump also announced that Gen. Michael Guetlein, who currently serves as the vice chief of space operations, will be responsible for overseeing Golden Dome's progress. During his campaign, he said Herschel Walker would be in charge of the program.
• The system is partly based on Israel's Iron Dome system, though it would be much larger than the defense system Israel introduced in 2011, the BBC reports.

• Golden Dome is envisioned to include ground- and space-based capabilities that are able to detect and stop missiles at all four major stages of a potential attack: detecting and destroying them before a launch, intercepting them in their earliest stage of flight, stopping them midcourse in the air, or halting them in the final minutes as they descend toward a target. "All of them will be knocked out of the air," Trump said. "The success rate is very close to 100%."
• The Congressional Budget Office estimated this month that just the space-based components of the Golden Dome could cost as much as $542 billion over the next 20 years. Trump has requested an initial $25 billion for the program in his proposed tax break bill now moving through Congress.
• The Pentagon has warned for years that the newest missiles developed by China and Russia are so advanced that updated countermeasures are necessary. Golden Dome's added satellites and interceptors—where the bulk of the program's cost is—would be focused on stopping those advanced missiles early on or in the middle of their flight.
• Trump said Canada wants to join the project, though there was no immediate comment from Ottawa, the CBC reports. "They want to hook in and they want to be a part of it," he said, adding that Canada will pay its "fair share."

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